The increasing frequency of Low Intensity Conflicts (LIC) in which army units (as distinguished from police forces that are naturally experienced and skilled), are at times required to cope with violent events and conflicts by application of only reasonable force—for example dispersing demonstrations or processions, as well as the increased frequency of Operations Other Than War (OOTW, also known as “peace operations”), wherein the military or police forces involved are challenged with crowd control type of missions as well as fighting ones, has led to developing a variety of Non-Lethal Weapons (hereinafter—NLW).
By developing NLW, it is tried to obtain maximum stopping capability, reduced damage to the opponents (antagonists) and collateral damage to those in the conflict area immediate vicinity and to minimize the dangers to which those operating the NLW are exposed.
NLW that are the products of development, post operational and logistics challenges to military units that—as a rule, are equipped with and trained rather to operate lethal fighting means.
Certain types of non-lethal ammunition are suitable to be fired from the same weapons that serve also as deadly weapons of those units, but partly they do not enable to exploit all the capabilities embodied in the lethal armament in their possession. For example, non lethal ammunition (clusters of rubber balls, plastic rounds, salt packages etc.), that has a diameter that suits, as if, for firing from a grenade machine gun, (such as for example the Mk-19), is absolutely not given for firing automatic fire from it, because the operation of this machine gun uses the pressure in the firing chamber for its repeated gun's cocking (blow back principle) and this mandates ammunition that produces high pressure while the non lethal ammunition produces only low pressure that is not sufficient for cocking the (grenade) machine gun.
Concurrently, other Non-Lethal means are naturally specifically dedicated and not included in the known arsenal of fighting army units and hence the provisioning required for them hampers (inconveniences) the units and compels them to increase the variety of means in their equipment, with an accompanying logistic encumbrance and thus also requiring wider related expertise. For example—an acoustic means like an extremely strong loud-speaker (Long Range Acoustic Device—LRAD), tear gas grenades that are fired from a dedicated launcher or an array of canister tubes, a sniper's rifle with a tiny caliber or troublesome flickering flashing light, etc.
Thus, in the period that preceded the invention which is the subject matter of this application, as a rule, army units that were required to cope also with the challenges of using solely reasonable force, had to provision also an additional variety of NLW that replaces the lethal fighting means of their routine equipment, Moreover, the additional variety of NLW mandates also that they should be separately transportable (in bulk mode) to the conflict area, and assigning fighters with expertise in each type of this equipment separately, for being operated by them. The phenomena of decentralization (dispersion) of the NLW that we pointed at above, leads naturally to superfluous excess exposure of the fighters in the conflict areas to confrontations that might be violent, and to operational failures, such as lack of power concentration, lack of immediate and parallel availability of the variety of NLW and lack of accuracy (precision) in operating the means.
In parallel to the current spread of Low Intensity Conflicts (LIC) and Operations Other Than War (OOTW) type of conflicts, a “Remote Controlled Weapons Station” (RCWS) was added to the lethal fighting means of the ground army. RCWS is a weapons station that is mounted on military vehicles or armored combat vehicles, and is remotely controlled from inside the vehicle by means of a joystick, video display and an operating console. The RCWS comprises all the functions which enable it to acquire targets, aim the weapon and fire at a target with high accuracy. The gunner operates while he is within the vehicle and is protected by the vehicle's armor.
As an example for RCWS and for the sake of clarifications, reference is made to FIGS. 1 and 2. The figures depict in perspective an example of a representative RCWS 10 and an exploded view of an RCWS 10 (respectively), in a manner that makes it possible to learn about its characteristic assemblies—a weapon mounting bracket 20 that is pivotally mounted on a rotatable turret assembly 25 (that is suited on its side to be mounted on a vehicle (that is not illustrated)), so that the weapon mounting bracket has combined capabilities of complete rotation of 360° and an accurate mechanical elevating/lowering (by an assembly of controlled servo motors (that is not illustrated)), lethal weapons means 30 that is adapted to dismantling installation on weapon mounting bracket 20 (in the illustrated example—a heavy machine gun Browning M2, but it is also possible to mount (install) on the RCWS a variety of other weapons, as for example a MAG machine gun, a grenade's machine gun, an automatic cannon, canisters tube of anti-tank missiles), an ammunition crate 40 for “feeding” weapon means 30 and an electro-optical assembly 50 (including protective cover 55) that may include observation and sensing means, such as an imaging sensor (“camera”) CCD 57, night observation means by thermal imaging (FLIR) 59 and laser range finder 61.
Thus, in the fighting means arsenal of army units there is already embedded means that has capability to accept and have installed on it and provide accurate remote operating of a variety of lethal weapon means. Namely—the means have capability of accurate mechanical rotation and elevating/lowering (as needed for aiming to a target in the wide open space around it and also continued tracking of it), it enables absorbing the recoil that is involved in operating pyrotechnical means from it (such as firing (shooting) blank cartridges for producing launching pressure and the like), it provides for electrical operation (actuating) mechanical mechanisms that are installed on it (as required for executing remote operations of cocking (guns etc.), pressing the trigger etc.). Means that provide for accurate day and night vision and aiming capabilities, and that is mobile (portable) and mounted as said on a vehicle, and controlled from the inside of the vehicle, and by this prevents dangerous exposure to enemy fire of the soldiers operating it.
At this state of affairs, as existing in the period preceding the invention which is the subject matter of this application, the same army unit itself, at a proximity of time and place, might be thrown into different operational scenarios, wherein when one exists—it is able to exploit for its benefit the advantages provided by the RCWS in its possession, while that from the instant wherein the second scenario occurs (e.g.—crowd control, scattering of demonstration and the like), as there is no alternative (i. e., due to lack of selection), the same army unit departs from exactly these advantageous capabilities.
In the one scenario, the army unit is exposed to a scenario that mandates using lethal weapons (for example—encounter with the enemy in an ambush), and because of the RCWS in its arsenal it can be mobilized quickly and to counter the enemy, focused and effectively, with a substantial and varied firing power, while its fighters are relatively defended inside the vehicle or the armored combat vehicle.
In the second scenario, the same army unit, is summoned to quell a demonstration and there it is required (ordered) in this case to exert only reasonable and not lethal force for this mission, and the advantages of its RCWS are not materialized (if at all—only for observation activities).
The troops are required to mobilize into the incident area a whole variety of the non-lethal means that they have in bulk state, to be spread in the area wherein they are exposed and hence vulnerable, and try to aim the means in the best effective way subject to their manual expertise.
Thus, in the period that preceded the invention, the subject matter of this patent application, there existed the need for means that would enable dispersing demonstrations or processions from the security of being inside a vehicle, by operating accurately all the scope of the variety of the non-lethal means that were mobilized into the area, in a centralized fashion and available for immediate action.